Tag Archives: silencers

Why I love Colorado

Posted on by Melissa
I recently came back from a trip to the east coast. I was there to see my cousin graduate from high school. My aunt, uncle and cousin live in Washington DC, so we spend a few days there and then went down to Atlantic City for a couple days. We had a wonderful time, but spending some time out east made me appreciate home. Don’t get me wrong, the east coast is beautiful, and Washington DC is amazing and full of history, but it’s a different world out there.
I haven’t been to DC in about 15 years. When you’ve been somewhere as a kid, then you go back as an adult, it’s like the first time, because you have a completely different perspective. The first thing that struck me was how claustrophobic that city is. There are a lot of people, in a very small area, compared to where I live, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where we’re very spread out. It was a little uncomfortable, but it wasn’t the biggest culture shock…
The biggest culture shock about Washington DC was their gun laws. Pretty much take all of Colorado gun laws, and turn them up-side down. It’s basically full of CAN’T's. You can’t apply for any type of permit or license to carry a gun. You can’t have a “high capacity” magazine (more than 10 cartridges). You can’t have a fully automatic firearm or suppressors (aka, any fun). You can’t have a taser or stun-gun. And finally, the only way you can transport a gun through Washington DC is unloaded, and neither the gun nor the ammo can be accessible to the passenger compartment.
When people live in an environment with their gun freedoms suppressed like this, they become ignorant about guns, because people assume if the government restricts guns, guns must be evil. They have no idea of the rich gun community in other parts of the country. They don’t understand how the sport enriches people’s lives, young and old. I was at the range with A Girl and A Gun the other day, and I watched a 7 year old girl fall in love with shooting, and see her confidence grow with every shot. I feel sorry for those who cannot see past the anti-gun rhetoric, but I have to admit, it does make me proud to live in a state like Colorado.

Next item on my wish list: A Suppressor for my Glock

Posted on by Melissa

I was at an outdoor public range a couple weeks ago with a friend. It was a combination pistol and rifle range, and my friend and I were shooting a couple of my pistols. There was a lot of noise on the range, obviously, with about twenty people shooting their guns. But through all the normal gun shots, I heard something like you hear in an assassin movie. I looked to my left and saw a rifle with a suppressor, and I was so jealous! I would love to have a suppressor, but they are a little difficult to buy.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) categorizes silencers as a National Firearms Act (NFA) firearm. (Silencer is a common term for suppressors, and that is how the ATF refers to them, but I will always call them suppressors, because nothing can really “silence” a gun.) Other weapons categorized as NFA firearms include full-auto guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, “destructive devices” including Molotov cocktails and bazookas, and “any other weapon” which includes cane guns and gadget guns.

The process for buying a NFA firearm is pretty lengthy. When you’ve picked out your suppressor, you must fill out an application with the specific serial number for your suppressor. Before you send the application and $200 in taxes to the ATF, you must first have the “Law Enforcement Certification” completed by the chief law enforcement officer. Your gun dealer then holds on to the suppressor while your application is being processed, which could be up to six months! If your application is approved and when it’s sent back to you, then comes the happy day you get to go back to your gun shop and pick up your suppressor. You must do this with each NFA firearm you purchase. From then on out, any time you have the suppressor, you must have a copy of the ATF approval on your person. By the way, if you didn’t know already, I happen to live in Colorado, where suppressors are legal. If you live in state where they are illegal, then you are out of luck.

I don’t understand why suppressors are so restricted. I feel they should be as easy to purchase as any other gun. Suppressors actually make your gun safer. The most obvious way is that suppressors reduce the gun’s report (gunshot noise), which is safer for your hearing, with or without hearing protection. On the range this isn’t such a big deal, but if you’re protecting yourself in the middle of the night, are you really going to have time to put on your hearing protection? Probably not.

When you screw on a suppressor to the end of your barrel, you are adding weight on your gun. Extra weight is always a plus on a gun, and when it’s on the end of your barrel, it will reduce both recoil and muzzle climb, which will make you more accurate. In a home invasion scenario, you need to stop your target as soon as you can so you have less of a chance of you or others in your home getting hurt.

So yes, I really want a suppressor, but I am certainly not looking forward to the process to purchase one. The great part about being a gun-lover in Colorado is that if I want a gun, I go to my local gun shop (usually the Shootin’ Den in Colorado Springs), fill out the application, wait an hour or so, and then go home happy with my new gun. We don’t have a waiting period of several days or weeks. I don’t usually buy things online because I’m very much an instant-gratification kind of girl. So whenever I do go through the process of buying a suppressor, it will be so hard to wait!